APIRG Research Committee

Alberta Workers' Health Centre

Workers / Labour , esp. workers with health and safety problems or workplace injuries and illnesses.

AWHC is a registered charity with a mandate to help improve the health and safety of Alberta’s workplaces and to help those who have suffered from workplace injuries and illness. Since the founding of the Centre in 1983 most of the provinces labour unions have made this financially possible.

The Alberta Workers’ Health Centre is a registered charity and non-profit organization.

Redefining Workplace Health and Safety:
A Critical Look at WCB Statistics

A synthesis of critical analyses related to the collection of WCB stats.

This project would take the form of a research paper.

- Anecdotal evidence and scattered studies suggest that typical quantitative measurements used to evaluate the overall state of occupational health and safety (OHS) in Alberta are seriously flawed. We are interested in synthesizing these critiques of measurements such as the lost time claim rate, duration rates; accident/injury rate, and rates of fatalities to present a different picture of OHS in Alberta. This can be analyzed along a number of angles: we can ask who or what the data or the methodologies exclude, how it may be manipulated, and what jurisdictions outside of Alberta are doing.

Because the scope of this project will necessarily limited to what a student can handle in a term, we do not expect to generate a comprehensive set of alternative measurements, but rather a coherent synthesis of several of these critiques.

While we estimate that this paper would be 10-15 pages in length, overall quality, substance in writing and presentation is more important than the length.

Depending on how successful it is, this paper could also be also rewritten for trade and union publications and become the basis of a communications package for informing union activists and employers and media who cover workplace issues. Ideally we would like to have something completed so that it may be summarized in a communications package to be released on April 28, the International Day of Mourning for Workers Killed and Injured on the Job and the start of Edmonton Mayweek festival.

We see this project as part of our overall goal of worker education and producing worker-centered knowledge about OHS, and redefining “OHS success” as that reflects and protects the actual circumstances of workers. Ultimately, we would like to see these findings as the basis of a platform that would be incorporated in the WCB.

• familiarize oneself with the existing stats and measurements and their collection
  locate and understand existing critiques w/assistance from liaison
• writing a coherent paper that synthesizes and evaluates existing critiques of WCB stats
• looking at what other jurisdictions may have initiated as alternatives
• optional qualitative component: talking to injured workers or reps from their organizations
• suggest what we might be measuring, if possible

- within one semester
- 3-4 hrs/week for one semester should be plenty of time.

1-2 hours is available with the liaison. This time would be set aside for questions, discussion, and guidance; it would not be mandatory to use all that time.

I would prefer to meet in person to discuss the project rather than by email, but I am reachable by email. I will be gone the last week of March but should be around at all other times in the semester.

The liason is fairly knowledgeable about these critiques, questions and frameworks surrounding WCB statistical practices. They will provide starting points for the student and point them to studies and organizations where they might want to begin their search.

Upper level of undergraduate programme or graduate programme.

Good time management skills; critical perspective; good communication and technical writing skills; critical perspective on one’s own work experience.

This project would be of interest to any student interested in a practical application of their qualitative and quantitative research education and “critical takes” on statistics. It would complement any interest in sociology, social science and stats, health and social policy, political science, health education, and/or social work.